. >> just days after nixon took office a huge oil spill in santa barbara california and ohio's river caught fire. nixon's senior environmental advisors. >> you have rivers catching fire you better be aggressive. >> weeks after earth day in 1970 nixon established the grand new environment tal protection agency. >> it is fair to say the government does a good job at cleaning things up. >> absolutely. >> he writes extensively on green regulators. >> rivers are not catching fire any more. that's a great thing. dug through public opinion in those years. even as the nation's air and water were getting cleaner and toxic waste dumps were getting cleaned up american people were increasingly worried about the convenie environment. why is that do you think? >> we went from not worrying at all in the 40z and 50s to possibly worrying too much or worrying about the wrong things. >> blame that on environmental doomsday book beginning with silent strepring by marine biologist carson. a run away seller in 1962 it envisions humans gradually destroying the world by among other things the indiscriminate